The fabrication of an integrated circuit is a complex and precise process. A contaminant may be introduced during the fabrication of an integrated circuit. The chemical supplies used to fabricate an integrated circuit may be contaminated or the equipment used to manufacture the integrated circuit may malfunction and contaminate the integrated circuit.
Very low levels of a contaminant may adversely affect the operation of the integrated circuit. For example, a few parts per billion of a radioactive contaminant may cause soft errors that make the operation of the integrated circuit unreliable.
It may be time consuming and expensive to identify a contaminant in an integrated circuit. The analysis may need to extract the contaminant from the integrated circuit and the extraction process may destroy the integrated circuit. The analysis may be especially difficult for very low levels of a contaminant.
The present invention may address one or more of the above issues.